We shall see if I can make monthly reports/summaries a thing for the duration of my bulking. For this first round, we will cover how accurately I’ve been hitting macros, and how I’m feeling body-wise.
Macros goals
In terms of macros, I’m largely on point, but definitely not hitting bullseyes.
Mostly the issue is coming in at the carbs area, with an average of nearly double my target grams. I do know I’ve been a bit relaxed in terms of 85-90% dark chocolate, which is going to have its carbs alongside its fats. I also know that I’ve been trying out whole milk instead of almond milk for my protein shakes, and that’s also going to bring its carbs in, along side the small increments that many of my other foods had. It all adds up.
Regarding protein, I only came up really short 4 times, which 11 times where I was short of 218g by less than 10. With fats, I was short by over 10g 12 times, but still hit or exceeded 15 times.
As a reminder, the 35g carbs is the only one meant as a “hard” limit.
| Protein | Fats | Carbs | |
| Goal (g) | 218 | 192 | 35 |
| Times hit or exceeded | 16 | 15 | n/a |
| Times short by 10g or less | 11 | 4 | n/a |
| Times short by over 10g | 4 | 12 | n/a |
| Times hit or under | n/a | n/a | 1 |
| Times less than 10g excess | n/a | n/a | 4 |
| Times more than 10g excess | n/a | n/a | 26 |
| Average/day | 227.56g | 185.98g | 68.22g |
I also have not been landing 100% on the front of alcohol. I HAVE been doing overall good on abstaining on training days, which has been three days a week plus the single HIIT session with our little group. However, I fully admit to having given in on weekends. I’m working on dialing that back, to not giving in at all. It’s a poor excuse, but a small amount of me “justifies” with “it was the holiday season”. That excuse no longer flies now that we’re into January, and I don’t want to have more excuses.
Body changes
At times I don’t necessarily feel like the body composition has change that much yet, but other times I definitely feel like I’m still slimming down slowly, which is good because it means my body is still tapping into fat stores as an energy source.
Overall
It’s only the first four weeks out of sixteen, so it’s definitely harder to see the initial work, but hopefully we’re on pace to continue to ramp up everything and things will continue to fall in place. The program that Liv has me on is definitely a progressive overload and we’re working our way up. I’m already at 85lb goblet squats :D.
